When British people think of the Jaguar brand they hearken back to a time when the only people who drove a Jaguar were people who smoke pipes, wore sports jackets and spent their days dissecting Oscar Wilde plays and discussing Jungian theories.    Jaguar tried for the longest time to deliver cars that lived in that world, but sadly for them the rest of the globe stopped caring about the brand.  Jaguar watched as their market share plummeted across the world.  This causes Jaguar to reinvent the brand and create cars that would impress the rest of the world by still holding onto some semblance of the past.    It took a little while, but it seems like they may have finally succeed.

Jaguar has unleashed the reconfigured XJ line on the world that is a step up for both the car maker and buyers of luxury class cars.    The overall look and feel of the new XJ is definitely modern, but under the  car Jaguar still makes the XJ with all-aluminum construction that allows the car to handle like a much smaller car and also affords Jaguar from keeping power up with a smaller engine that many of their competitor’s cars in the luxury class.

Under the bonnet the Jaguar XJ comes with two 5.0-litre V8 petrol powered engines of the normally aspirated variety.  The V8 is offered in power levels of 380bhp or 464bhp.  There also is a XJ Supersport available that gets an engine that delivers 503bhp.     And of course there is a diesel option as well that comes as a 3.0-litre twin-turbo V6 that gives off 271bhp with a serious level of torque at 600Nm.  

Given that Jaguar is aiming the XJ at real drivers it has included a nice array of specs that make this one of the best luxury cars to drive hands down.   Jaguar has equipped the XJ with a nifty little thing they are calling JaguarDrive that allows the driver to turn a knob and select between Standard, Dynamic or Winter suspension settings.   These modes will fine tune the suspension, gearshift speeds, throttle response, stability controls and the active differential to produce the best results for each situation. 

As with the rest of the recent Jaguar reinvention the design team as created an exterior style that seamlessly combines luxury with sporty styling.   The car come also comes with a choice of standard or long wheelbases depending on how much room you need inside.   The front end shows of the elegance of the jaguar brand while the rear end focuses on making sure people behind the driver understand that the car in front of them is more than a simple car.  

While outside styling and drivability are key factors to any luxury car the true test is what is offered on the inside.    Jaguar has updated the XJ with an interior that is uniquely British.  While many of the German cars come across as minimalist, the XJ dashboard is angles and sexy, the vents are emblazoned with chrome and the entire thing is centered around a 8” touch screen that showcases the car’s technology.  

British executive types who what to show off civic pride in their luxury choices will be extremely happy with what they get in the latest version of the Jaguar XJ.  Come we all know that if you had the money you would buy one.